Medical Update

[pameladean]

I've been getting some quite remarkably low blood pressure readings. I think the winner was 95/58, which was very dizzy-making indeed. Before I achieved this particular set of numbers, I had already called the clinic for a far more modest set, having noticed that if the systolic got under 100 or the diastolic under 70, I felt distinctly not up to much of anything. I hoped they'd just give me some guidelines about what drugs I might be able to cut back on if numbers did this or that, but they insisted that I had to come in. I made the appointment, figuring that when my blood pressure shot up as a result of the impending visit, I'd just cancel it. But the increase I expected hasn't happened. I am still a bit dubious that my blood pressure will perform as required and be low tomorrow when I go in, but at least it isn't a sure thing that it won't. And I'm bringing the records with me. I really hope I can reduce some of this medication. Four drugs is just ridiculous, not to mention pricy.

I'm not entirely sure what is happening here. I have been trying to edge a bit more sodium out of my diet, and to get closer to 45 than the minimum of 30 minutes of exercise a day (the nurse who took my original message misinterpreted this to mean "weight loss," which annoys me no end), and a couple of significant emotional stresses have recently been removed, so I guess that must explain it.

Pamela

Comments

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

Good luck! We have been battling this with Ranj's bp, too. The doctor has only to say something stupid, and whoops, there it is, right back on the roof again.

Exercise, though, really does help. Have you considered bicycling? If you have any pretty local trails, it's very soothing to bicycle down them at 7 or 8 mph, enjoying the scenery. We were carless for five months, and since we have a car again and I drove to campus last week I discovered that I'm stiff and sore once I get there and irritable when I get home, if I drive instead of biking. (Yes, I'm a cycling pimp, thanks for noticing. ;)

Thanks!

[pameladean]

Well, it wasn't low for the clinic, it started out at 158 over 98 and went down to 124 over 91 at best, but my nurse practitioner believed my diary, and after much consultation we decided which drug to cut back.

She doesn't say stupid things, but she doesn't have to, or to be there at all; the mere act of taking the bus and going into the building makes my blood pressure go up like a rocket. I think it's the residue of last summer's nightmare, when I was trying drug after drug and dosage after dosage and going in twice a week and nothing ever got better; in fact, it got worse, until they referred me to a nephrologist, which terrified me no end, though in fact doing so earlier would have been a great idea. There wasn't anything wrong with my kidneys and the nephrologist figured out a drug regimen.

Has Ranj got a home monitor? Mine is all that stands between me and insanity, I sometimes think. I believe insurance will pay for it much of the time. (Or if not, when I first uttered the magical words, "I don't have health insurance" in the nephrologist's office, the nurse left abruptly and came back with a home blood pressure monitor, which she just handed over to me for nothing.)

Pamela